Haunted Past
by HieiYYH
Summary: A strange fox demon from Kurama's past comes from out of nowhere. Can he defeat him?
1. Chapter 1

"At least I'm finally here," Kurama said as he looked up at his school building, now an hour late for class because his train was late. As he started talking toward the building a strange shadow appeared before him.

"Where do you think you're going?" a young man with long red hair tied in a pony-tail, green eyes, and wearing a blue kimono stood in front of him, "Kurama. I know who you are. You might be pretending to be a human now but the fox smell stays."

Kurama asked, "And who might you be?"

He asked, "You don't recognize an old enemy when you see one? I guess not, since I'm in a human form."

"Akita?" Kurama asked. He nodded. "I wondered when you'd figure out I was here but I didn't expect you to take so long."

"Well," Akita replied, "I heard almost right away that you escaped alive and were hiding in living world as a human but I figured you weren't pathetic enough to do that. During the dark tournament I found out that not only was it true, but you're helping humans now. I never thought you'd stoop so low."

Kurama demanded, "What do you want?"

"Just to see what you're really like now," he replied, "you'll sense me now and again." He disappeared into the shadows.

"Shuichi?" someone at the front door asked, "What are you doing standing there? You better have a good exuse for being late."

* * *

Instead of staying behind like he usually does, Kurama scurried off campus right when school got out. He sensed Akita watching him in the distance but hurried to Kuwabara's and Yusuke's school right away. "Kuwabara," Kurama said as he saw him leaving the front gates with his friends, "You wouldn't happen to know where Yusuke is, would you?"

"No," he answered, "but he skips a lot. I haven't seen him much the past few days. Did you try the arcade?"

"No."

"What's the matter?" Kuwabara asked.

"Hey, Kuwabara!" one of his friends called, "What's the hold-up?"

Kurama said, "There might be something wrong, I need to talk to Yusuke and Genkai at once...Hiei would be helpful too but I'll never find him, there isn't enough time." He looked around and noticed Akita's presence.

"Hey, I can help too," Kuwabara said, then turned to his other friends, "sorry guys I'm going to have ditch this time. See you later!"

* * *

As they walked to the arcade Kuwabara asked, "So, what's the deal?"

"I'd rather not have to explain this multiple times," Kurama said, "just be on the lookout for someone with red hair and green eyes."

"You mean like you?" Kuwabara asked. Kurama nodded.

A flying shadow suddenly appeared in front of both of them. "Hiei?" Kurama asked.

"You're being followed," Hiei said.

"And what do you know?" Kuwabara demanded, "Where did you just come from anyway?" He started looking around nervously.

Kurama asked, "Is that really you, Hiei?"

"Why do you think I'm joking?" he asked, "a fox disguised as a human is following behind you, did you just lose his scent or something?"

He said, "I'm just making sure you're not Akita in disguse. Could you help us find Yusuke?"

"You still didn't answer my question, shorty," Kuwabara said, "where did you just come from you freak?"

Hiei said, "Yusuke's deep in the mountains with Genkai."

"Fine," Kuwabara said, "just ignore me then."

* * *

"So what's going on?" Yusuke asked as he took a break from playing video games with Genkai.

"Akita's always been a rival of mine," Kurama explained in her living room with everyone present, "we always wanted the same things and we often ended up attacking each other in the end. In my final days as Yoko he cornered me and injured me to the point where I had to run. Then I ran into someone in the SDF."

Yusuke asked, "The who-now?"

Genkai explained, "They're King Yama's defense force for all of spirit world in case anything goes to hell. When they're not waiting for orders sometimes they venture into demon world and stir things up out of bordrum."

Kuwabara asked, "So one of them forced you here?"

"Basically," Kurama said, "I figured Akita would try to come back and finish me off sooner or later but after 10 years I thought he moved on."

Hiei said, "It's obvious he hasn't forgotten."

"Yes," Kurama said, "and he's gotten stronger these last 15 or so years, I can feel it, and I only have my human strength."

Kuwabara asked, "Can't you just transform back into Yoko like you did before?"

"Even if I did," he explained, "I'll only have the strength I had _back then_. He's even stronger now. There's no point in wasting all of that energy in transforming."

Hiei said, "He's here." He turned and looked outside.


	2. Chapter 2

"You such an idiot, Kurama, foxes aren't pack animals," Akita said as he appeared in Genkai's yard before them, "we don't need a posee egging us on as support like some kind of dumbass heard of wolves." He glared at all of them who were sitting in Genkai's living room.

Kuwabara turned around and shouted, "Hey, we're not just some cheerleaders standing on the sideline, you know!"

Kurama ran outside to confront him and said, "You know strength lies in numbers, Akita." He pulled a rose out of his hair as everyone gathered around him.

"A group makes a larger target," Akita said, "means it's easier to hit and take down. 'The bigger they are the harder they fall,' as they always say." He took out his own rose from his hair.

Yusuke said, "Damn, that was a good one. Quick, someone think of something snappy to say back to that." He started trying to think hard wondering what a good comback would be.

"We're not here to crack jokes, Yusuke," Kurama said as he turned his rose into a whip instantly.

Akita said, "Rose whip!" He whiped it around in a circle and caused the ground in front of them to crack open. They all moved out of the way in time.

Hiei jumped up and drew his sword, only for Akita to swing his whip back around and cut it into pieces. Then turned to Kuwabara and stung him with the end. "Kuwabara!" Yusuke shouted as he fell to the ground.

"He's not dead," Kurama assured him, "he's only been stung with the end of the whip. Akita, I never knew you to be merciful."

"Niether were you," he replied, "but we're in living world. Spirit world is watching me as I speak. If I kill a human, then I'll be stuck here just like Hiei is over there. I'm not stupid enough to limit myself like that." Hiei glared at him.

Yusuke asked, "You mean that's why you don't go back?"

Hiei looked away from him. Akita said, "That's a yes, obviously. As for you, I'm surprised demons from the other world don't try coming over here in droves to kill you. Toguro wasn't as tough as they get, you know. Then again, no one cared about the Saint Beasts."

Kurama said, "So, you've done your research." He swung his rose whip around only for Akita to counter.

"That's what good foxes are supposed to do," Akita replied, "if you had done that maybe you would have realized the SDF was looking for demons that day."

Hiei lunged forward, readying another attack just as Kurama had him occupied. Unfortunately, Akita saw it coming and whipped his whip around, cutting off Hiei's jacket and throwing him off to the side in time to counter another one of Kurama's attack.

"Damn this guy's good," Yusuke said as he readied his spirit gun, "Spirit gun!"

Akita cut it in half with his rose whip and they all watch Hiei narrowly dodge half the blast by stepping backwards. It zoomed back them both and hit the forest behind them all, breaking trees in it's wake. "Would you aim better?!" Hiei demanded.

"It's not my fault, Hiei!" Yusuke shouted, "He cut it in half! No one's ever done that before! Who the hell is this guy?"

"A singular blast is easy to dodge," Akita said, "is that all you have?"

"Kai, ju, so, ni!" Genkai chanted, and threw talasman cards at him.

Akita jumped up and away from them as they landed on the ground in front of him, throwing his whip to the side. It turned back into a normal flower. "So some humans do still know that trick," he said, "interesting."

Yusuke asked, "What the hell just happened?"

"Those things will wear off soon," Akita said, "And I'll be back when they do." He disappeared into the forest.

Kurama said, "Those cards and chant ward off fox spirits from demon world."

Yusuke asked, "Then where the hell was that before?" He stared at Genkai.

"They were buried in my junk pile," she said, "spirit foxes don't spend much time in human world anymore."

Kurama said, "That'll only ward him off temporarily. We'll need a plan before he comes back."

"About that," Genkai said, "I have an idea, that's why I warded him off. We should have Kuwabara be part of this too. Even he can be useful sometimes. How long should that be?"

"Less than an hour," Kurama answered.

"I have to find a few more things," she said as she went back inside.

Hiei looked down at his tatered jacket and then over at his broken sword, "Now I need a new sword and a new jacket." He threw off the torn clothing he had on.

"About that," Yusuke said, "where do you get new ones? Unless you're saying that's been the same jacket the whole time, then I'll be really confused."

"Hn," he said, "like you need to know."

Yusuke asked, "Kurama, haven't you ever wondered?"

"Me?" he asked, "I've only wondered where he keeps all of his belts and where he gets new ones."

"Would you stop staring at me?!" Hiei demanded, "You're all acting like children."


	3. Chapter 3

"Here," Genkai said as she pulled out a single talasman card and showed all of them in her living room.

Yusuke asked, "What does that do?"

Kuwabara stirred awake slowly and sat up, "What's going on? Hey, where'd everyone go?"

"We're in here!" Yusuke shouted at him, "Hurry up and get your ass in here."

"Hey!" he shouted as he jumped inside, "What happened anyway? Did we win?"

"No, but I have something that can," Genkai explained, "This talasman card banishes spirit foxes into demon world for 100 years if it's said with the right chant. I only have one left." She held it up to all of them.

Kurama asked, "Only one?"

"These are hard to come by ever since the barrier went up hundreds of years ago," she said, "which poses a problem. If I miss him at all we're all screwed."

Hiei said, "We're going to need a foolproof plan for anything to work against him."

"What I do have is a bunch of these," she pulled out several more different talasman cards.

Yusuke asked, "And what the hell do those do?"

"What do you think I'm going to do," she said, "not explain it to you? Stop talking for once and listen. These change appearances temporarily with the right chant and since this Akita guy is only after Kurama they can help." She plucked one of Kurama's strands of hair and broke it apart for each talasman card.

They each took one with a piece of hair. She made the chant and they all suddenly looked like Kurama.

"Whoa," Yusuke said.

"Don't talk," she warned, "it takes a lot more energy to change voices so all of you sound the same."

"Ugh," Yusuke said, "Genkai's voice doesn't match Kurama's body at all."

"Hey," Kuwabara said, "Hiei's finally average height."

Kurama kicked him in the chest and watched him fall to the ground. "I've always wanted to do that," he said.

Yusuke said, "Isn't is going to be kind of weird that there's five Kurama's all of sudden? I think he might notice something's up."

"A smoke screen," Kurama said, "I'll create one now and it should be plenty thick enough so he won't be able to tell where we are by the time he comes back."

* * *

As the smoke screen outside of Genkai's house got bigger and thicker, Akita appeared in the forest, angrier than ever before. Just as he appeared, the real Kurama noticed and ran into the thick fog cover.

"So you've been hiding here the whole time with your posee," Akita said as he walked into the fog, "I can smell that you're in here, stupid."

Kurama planted his seeds and forced giant vines to grow under all of their feets, splitting him up and causing blind spots for Akita so he wouldn't notice that Kurama was in multiple places at once.

Akita jumped up and stood on the tallest vine reaching over the fog and looked down around him.

Yusuke saw him first, and thought, _How do I get his attention without shouting?_ He looked around and saw a rock to throw at him and hit him in the leg.

"You!" Akita shouted. Just then, a large rope suddenly came from the other side and pulled Akita out of sight.

Hiei pulled the rope and made him land not too far from him, hard onto the ground. "Now!" he shouted..

Genkai came out of the fog and Akita asked, "What?" at the sight of two Kuramas.

She threw the talasman card and shouted, "Ji, san!"

Akita screeched as he turned into a white fox, his true form, and disappeared along with his kimono into nothing. Kuwabara asked, "Where did he go?"

"Back to demon world," Genkai answered, "just like I said he would."

Kurama started clearing away the smoke and making the plants disappear. As the sun came back out from behind the fog, Yusuke asked, "So, how long are we stuck like this?" He looked at all of them, the five of them still looking like Kurama.

Kurama said, "Wait, it's already been a hour since you transformed, right? Shouldn't it have worn off by now?" He looked at Genkai.

"Yes," she said awkwardly.

"If I'm stuck looking like this I'm going to kick your ass, Genkai," Yusuke said angrily.

The encantation instantly stopped working and they all returned to their regular selves. The talasman cards fell to the ground, as did the pieces of Kurama's hair they were with. She asked, "Was is so hard to wait 30 seconds?"

Yusuke replied, "Come on, you were worried too!"

"You were the only one panicking," she said.

"You know guys," Kuwabara said, "going to school pretending to be Kurama wouldn't be so bad."

"What the hell are you saying?" Yusuke asked.

Hiei said, "You really think the people in you talk to regularly wouldn't wonder why you suddenly looked so different? I suppose if they were as dumb as you, I could see that happening." He turned around and started walking away.

"Say that to my face shorty!" Kuwabara shouted as Yusuke laughed at him.


End file.
